Boxing This article is more than 2 months oldInoue KOs Tapales to become second male two-weight undisputed champion
This article is more than 2 months old- Japanese fighter unifies super-bantamweight titles
- 30-year-old previously won all four bantamweight belts
Japan’s Naoya Inoue became the second male boxer to be a four-belt undisputed champion in two weight divisions with a 10th-round knockout of Marlon Tapales in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Inoue unified the super-bantamweight titles of all four major sanctioning bodies, taking the WBA and IBF crown from Tapales and retaining the WBC and WBO belts he won in July.
“I think [junior featherweight] is my weight class for now so, in 2024, I would like to show myself at [junior featherweight] in even stronger form,” Inoue said after the fight. “I am so happy that I got the knockout in such a decisive manner.”
The 30-year-old unified all four belts in the bantamweight division last December with victory over Paul Butler before vacating those titles and moving up to his current weight class. The only other man to achieve the feat is American Terence Crawford, the current welterweight undisputed champion, who previously unified the four major belts in the light-welterweight class.
“[Tapales] never showed me fatigue or damage from his face, so I was quite surprised when he went down in the 10th round,” said Inoue. “It was one of the most intense fights I’ve had before, probably, but my corner cheered me up and kept me focused throughout the bout.”
In women’s boxing, Claressa Shields (middleweight and light-middleweight) and Katie Taylor (lightweight and light-welterweight) have achieved the same feat.
Sign up to Soccer with Jonathan Wilson
Free weekly newsletterJonathan Wilson brings expert analysis on the biggest stories from European soccer
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotion
Inoue, the first Asian two-division undisputed champion, is 26-0 as a professional and has previously been a world champion in two other weight classes, having won the WBC championship in light-flyweight and the WBO title in junior-bantamweight.
Explore more on these topicsShareReuse this contentncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaKugpL%2B1e5FpaWxnlJqwcH6VaKCnp6Waeqy70marmqiRobK0edOoZJudk6S6pnnSnpqoppRiuqK4xGarsKddrLKqs8etZK6mlJ7AscHTnptmm5iWurG1zqc%3D